Method and apparatus for sharing medical information

ABSTRACT

An apparatus and method is provided for treating a healthcare patient. The method includes the steps of establishing a audio/visual teleconference between a processor of the patient at a first location and a processor of a physician located at a second, remote location different from the first location and displaying a set of biometric parameters of the patient in real time to the physician at the remote location.

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/408,225 filed on Mar. 20, 2009 (pending) which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/038,295 filed on Mar. 20, 2008 (abandoned).

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The field of the invention relates to teleconferencing systems are moreparticularly to methods of using teleconferencing to diagnose medicalconditions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Methods of teleconferencing are generally known in the art. Such methodsare typically used by businesses to allow a number of people tosimultaneously interact through a voice or audio/video connection inorder to solve some particular problem.

In order to set up a teleconference connection, each person is typicallygiven a telephone number associated with a conferencing bridge withinthe telephone network. As each person calls into the conferencingbridge, a processing unit combines the voice information from eachcaller, normalizes the volume and retransmits the combined andnormalized voice signal to each conference participant.

Audio/video conferencing may also be accomplished through the Internet.In this case, an audio/video connection may be foamed between twocomputers. A camera and microphone is connected to each computer. Aconferencing application within the respective computers forms a packetconnection between the computers. Once the connection is set up, audioand video from each end may be collected from the cameras andmicrophones, packetized and sent to the other end under a TCP/IP orstreaming format.

While prior art methods are effective, they lack flexibility. Becausesuch methods are intended primarily for voice or for voice and video,they are not able to handle information content that cannot easily besupplied through the camera or microphone.

Where the exchange of other information is needed, then other methodsmust be used (e.g., e-mail, fax, etc.). Because of the importance ofcommunication a need exists for conferencing methods that are adaptableto the needs of the medical community.

SUMMARY

An apparatus and method is provided for treating a healthcare patient.The method includes the steps of establishing a audio/visualteleconference between a processor of the patient at a first locationand a processor of a physician located at a second, remote locationdifferent from the first location and displaying a set of biometricparameters of the patient in real time to the physician at the remotelocation.

In another aspect, the apparatus includes a website, a conferencingapplication at the website that establishes a audio/visualteleconference between a processor of the patient at a first locationand a processor of a physician located at a second, remote locationdifferent from the first location and a data processing application atthe website that displays a set of biometric parameters of the patientin real time to the physician at the remote location.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a telemedicine system in accordance with anillustrated embodiment of the invention and

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of process steps that may be used by the systemof FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a medical conferencing system 10 showngenerally in accordance with an illustrated embodiment of the invention.FIG. 2 is a flow chart of method steps that may be used within thesystem 10.

The system 10 may include a caregiver's computer 18, the computer 26 ofa consultant 26, a host 24 and other computer devices described in moredetail below. Included within the computers 18, 26, 24 (and the otherdevices) may be one or more processors (implemented as hardware)operating under the control of one or more computer programs(applications) loaded from a non-transitory computer readable medium(memory). In the description below, any reference to an application isalso a reference to the hardware of the processor upon which theapplication executes and provides which provides the functionalitydescribed.

The system 10 may be used by a patient alone or by patient with the helpof a caregiver to share health information with any of a number ofhealthcare consultants (e.g., physicians). The sharing of information bythe system 10 is based upon the use of a website 16 within a host 24that the patient or the patient and caregiver (the patient or patientand caregiver together hereinafter referred to as the “caregiver”) signinto. Signing into the system 10 may include verification 100 of apatient's identify through the use of a fingerprint scanner 20.

Once a patient has signed into the system 10 using the fingerprintscanner 20, the fingerprint of the patient may be compared with a filecopy 74 to verify the identity of the patient. The registration orrecognition of the patient is a prerequisite that allows the system 10to begin 108 a conference between the caregiver 18 and one or moreconsultants.

The caregiver's computer 18 may be provided in any of a number ofdifferent forms (e.g., notebook computer, personal digital assistant(PDA), etc.) The caregiver's computer 18 may be used in conjunction withvirtual private network (VPN) software including a FOB 14 attached tothe computer 18 that allows the computer to securely sign into thewebsite 16 within a VPN 12.

The website or web portal allows the caregiver 18 to send text messages,medical images or other medical data via a chat functionality. Thecaregiver 18 and VPN 12 allow private chat conversations includingvideo, audio and text.

Once the caregiver 18 signs into the system 10, a data handlingapplication 32 associated with the website 16 of the host 24 determineswhether 102 the patient has previously registered with the system 10 andwhether an electronic health record 72 exits for this patient. If not,then the application 32 creates 104 a record. As part of that creation,the patient is asked to insert his/her finger in the fingerprint scanner20 to authenticate 106 the identity of the patient.

Once signed in, one or more conferencing applications 42, 44 within thecaregiver's computer 18 may begin exchanging information with otherparties to the conference through the website 16. In addition, a datacollection application 30 within the caregiver's computer 18 may beginsending copies of biometric information appearing on the caregiver'scomputer screen 36 and/or changes to the biometric information to thewebsite. A corresponding data handling application (e.g., 32) associatedwith the website 16 may begin saving the screens from the caregiver'scomputer into an archive database 34. The database 34 may maintain afile 72 of saved information for each patient.

The saving of the caregiver's screens allows the caregiver to locallyconnect the caregiver's computer to any of a number of differentdiagnostic equipment 38, 40 that may be used to display biometricparameters 42 of the patient within a display window 36. Since thecommunication application 30 copies the information within the window36, the software supplied with the diagnostic equipment may be usedwithout modification to share and archive the patient's biometricinformation.

The diagnostic equipment 38, 40 may be selected from any of a number ofdifferent medical imaging and/or testing devices. Examples include heartrate monitors, portable ultrasound probes, portable X-ray machines,glucose monitors, chemical dependency test systems, infection diseasetest systems, blood analysis systems, spirometers, digital weightscales, digital thermometers, blood pressure monitors, exercisemonitors, digital peak flow meters, pulse oximeters, digitalstethoscopes, high resolution medical cameras, high resolutionophthalmology cameras, high resolution ear, nose and throat camera andapparatus, digital range of motion devices used on flexible joints ordigital infection detection test devices.

In addition to archiving 110 the patient's biometric information, theconferencing applications 42, 44 allow the caregiver to set up videoconferences with one or more healthcare professionals (physicians) forpurposes of consulting. Consulting in this case means viewing thebiometrics of the patient in real time while also conversing in realtime with the healthcare provider and/or patient. In order to preservepatient privacy, a consultant 26 may also be required to identifyhimself/herself 116 to the consultant's computer 26 via a fingerprintscanner 28.

The fingerprint scanners or readers 20, 28 authenticate the patient,home heathcare worker and healthcare professional at a login promptpresented by the website 18. The software of the computer 18, 26 allowsparticipants to share and view their respective computer desktops withall or selected participants. The software also allows the content ofthe conference to be recorded and stored on a central data repositorysystem 34. The website 16 and associated processes of the central datarepository are used to collect, process and store the electronic heathrecords for each patient within a respective file 72. Stored data mayinclude, but is not limited to, medical images, physician's notes,video, audio and text and may be stored within (or in conjunction with)each patient's record. Once a patient's fingerprint has been identifiedto the system 10, the patient's existing electronic health records (EHR)and electronic medical records (EMR) can be retrieved and correlated toa current session of stored information.

The system 10 also automatically generates and processes an electronicbill to the patient's healthcare provider 22 for prompt payment. Thiscan be accomplished using the physician's fingerprint and digitalsignature for authentication purposes. The system 10 can access andupdate a patient's medical records with strict access rights andprivileges. The secure data base 34 may process and store medicalrecords including, but not limited to magnetic resonance imaging data,computed tomography image data, X-ray imaging data, positron emissionimage data, ultrasound image or sonography data, heart rate data, bloodglucose data, body weight data, body mass index data, date of birth,patient identification number, personal contact information, allergyinformation, medication history, family/personal physician's name,family/personal car physician's identification number, recordedtelemedicine virtual visit sessions (conferences), asthma data, pulseoximeter data, blood analysis data, body temperature, blood analysisdata, physician notes, referring physician notes, medical specialistnotes and medical history data.

The caregiver's computer 18 may also provide preconfigured documentationtemplates 82, 84, including procedural notes, real-time vital signdiagnostic flow sheets and graphs, summaries and care plans for commonlyencountered problems in chronic disease management which may also, inturn, require critical care, emergency care, ambulatory care and acutecare physician visits. Temples 82, 84 may be accessed through thewebsite 16 for use during conferences between participants.

Each caregiver (by specialty) can easily configure these templates 82,84 generated by the computer 18 to meet specific needs and can createstandardized and scalable electronic health and electronic medicalrecords. Based upon care plans and protocols, embedded physician andnursing documentation on medical conditions and treatment options canfunction to prompt caregivers as they navigate through pathways of careand alert them to tasks needing action prospectively. Physiciandocumentation or resources available through the website 16 may ask foror prompt the physician with E & M coding that shows the documentationlevel of each visit. The system 10 may also recommends an appropriateCPT code to ensure timely and accurate billing.

The actual consultations with physicians or other healthcare workers maybe recorded to allow future caregivers to review the video and audio inconjunction with the documentation templates. The recordings serve as aback-up to reduce the number of patient errors, fraud and to improveoverall efficiency.

Communication between the caregiver's computer 18 and website 18 mayoccur using a broadband access device, DSL, dial-up or cable internetthrough the world wide web. Once a secure internet connection is set up,the caregiver and the patient are able to access the website 18 toconduct a teleconference medical (telemedicine) consultation through theVPN 12.

The system 10 may use voice recognition software 86 to transcribe thehealth provider's spoken words into written text. The recorded voice andtext may both be saved into the patient's medical records 72.

The database 34 may also contain identifying information of every knownmedication listed in the Physician's Desk Reference 88. Both PDRillustrations and explanations of each medication are accessible throughthe website 16 to the physician, patient, pharmacist and other healthcare professional that use the system 10. Using proprietary imageprocessing software 90, each medication is recognized by the camera 14and a list of medications along with each PDR picture of the medicationis retrieved to verify the accuracy of the medication presented by thepatient and/or home health care provider assisting the patient. An imageor identifier of each recognized medication may be saved to the file 72.

The caregiver computer 18 may be installed in emergency vehicles, cars,trucks, recreational vehicles, airplanes, military vehicles andhelicopters. The system 10 can also be installed in public areas foremergency access by a physician or other emergency health careprofessional.

The system 10 can be used by homebound patients, hospitals, dialysiscenters, or skilled nursing centers from anywhere in the world. Thisavailability is fostered by access through the internet and allowstelemedicine sessions to be conducted from anyplace in the world.

Data transmission and storage in the system 10 is 256 bit data encryptedto protect the patient's privacy. Additionally, data stored on thesecure data base repository system 34 is backed up as shown in FIG. 1through the use of a redundant data base system stored at a separatesecure location. Patient data can only be retrieved by authorizedmedical professionals, patients and family members.

In order to conference in a consultant, the healthcare provider may usea process similar to WebX for conferencing. In this case, however, theconference may be set up using a real time message (e.g., a chatmessage) through the website.

In order to invite a consultant to join the conference, the healthcareprovider may select consultants from a menu of consultants and activatean invite softkey for each consultant to be added to the conference.Upon activation of the invite softkey, the conferencing application 42,44 opens a respective consultant viewing window 46, 48, 50, 52, 54 andsends a chat message to the website 16 identifying the consultants and arespective audio/video port within the caregiver's computer for useduring that consultation. The website 16, in turn, may activate arespective conference handling application 56, 58 for each consultantand forward the message to a respective computer 26 of the selectedconsultants.

A tracking application 62 associated with the website 16 may alsomaintain a tracking list 64 of consultants. In addition to maintaining atracking list of consultants, the tracking application 62 may alsoassign a unique identifier to the conference and associate that uniqueidentifier with the identifier of the patient.

If the consultant accepts the conferencing offer, a correspondingcommunication application 60 within a computer 26 of the consultant maysend an acceptance message to the website 16. The invite message fromthe website 16 to the consultant may identify a communicationaudio/video port of the conferencing application 56, 58 for use duringthe conference. The acceptance message from the consultant returned tothe website 16 may identify a corresponding communication port withinthe conferencing application 60 of the consultant. Upon receipt of theacceptance message from the consultant by the website, the website maysend an acceptance message to the caregiver's computer identifying anaudio/video port on the activated conferencing application 56, 58associated with the consultant. The identified port of the consultant isalso added to the tracking list 64.

In addition to responding to the invite, the consultant's computer mayalso activate a video camera and microphone. Once activated, theconsultant's computer may begin sending audio and video packets to theidentified port of the respective conference handling application 56,58. The conferencing application 56, 58 may receive the audio and videopackets from the consultant and forward them to the identified port ofthe conferencing application 42, 44 within the caregiver's computer 18.In addition to forwarding the audio and video packet to the caregiverscomputer 18, the respective conferencing application 56, 58 alsoforwards the audio and video packets to the respective receive ports ofany other consultant present within the tracking list 64.

Similarly, once the consultant viewing application 42, 44 within thecaregiver's computer begins receiving audio/video from the consultant26, the conferencing application 42, 44 may open a viewing window 46,48, 50, 52, 54 and begin displaying video from the consultant in theopened window. The caregiver computer may also activate a video cameraand microphone and begin collecting audio/video information regardingthe caregiver and/or patient. The collected audio/video is transferredthrough the identified port of the caregiver's computer to thecorresponding identified port of the conferencing application 56, 58 ofthe website. The website in turn forwards the audio/video to theconsultant's computer and two-way audio/video communication isestablished.

Once the two-way audio/video connection is established, thecaregiver/patient may begin conversing with the consultant 26. As notedabove, the conferencing application (e.g., 42) opens a first consultantwindow (e.g., 46) on the display of the caregiver's computer. Within thefirst consultant window 46, the consultant viewing application displaysvideo from the consultant's computer while at the same time routingaudio from the consultant to a sound card within the caregiver'scomputer 18. At the same time the video camera and microphone collectsaudio/video of the caregiver/patient and forwards the audio/video to theconsultant.

In addition to displaying audio and video from the caregiver/patient 18,each consultant 26 also displays audio and video from any otherconsultant 26 that has accepted an invitation from the caregiver/patient18. In this case, the audio and video from each consultant 26 isforwarded to any other consultant present within the tracking list 64.Upon receipt of audio and video from other consultants 26, a newconferencing application 62 and window 65, 66, 68, 70, 72 is opened sothat each consultant would hear and observe any other consultant that isadded by the caregiver/patient 18 to the conference.

During the conversation, the consultant or caregiver may determine thatfurther biometric information may need to be collected from the patient.In this case, the caregiver may connect one or more biometric parametercollection devices 38, 40 to the caregiver's computer 18. In this case,the connection to the biometric parameter collection device 38, 40 maybe established through an appropriate connection (e.g., serial,parallel, USB, firewire, etc.) on the caregiver's computer 18. Softwareassociated with the biometric parameter collection device 38, 40 mayopen a window 36 on the caregiver's computer 18 that displays thebiometric parameters to the caregiver.

The opening of the window 36 for display of the biometric parameters ofthe patient is independent of the consultant windows 46, 48, 50, 52, 54displaying audio/video from the consultants. The caregiver may adjustthe size of the biometric window 36 as appropriate for viewingconvenience.

Once the biometric window 36 has been opened, the caregiver may alsoactivate the data collection application 30. Once activated, the datacollection application 30 captures 112 any information presented withinthe window 36 and forwards the captured information to the datacollection application 32 where the captured information is associated114 with the patient file 72. The captured information is archived asdiscussed above and is also sent to any consultant present within thetracking list 64. In this regard, the receipt of captured data from thedata handling application causes the activation of a corresponding datadisplay application 63 and the opening of a data display window 65 onthe consultant's computer.

The captured information from the biometric window 36 may be archived inthe database 34 in the patient file 72 or under the unique identifierassigned by the tracking application 62 for use in conjunction with thepatient data file 72. The tracking application may also save the audioand video of the caregiver/patient 18 and of each consultant 26 underthat same identifier as well as save the start and ending times of theconference and identifiers of the individual consultants.

Also associated with each consultant terminal 26 (or website 16) is abilling application 78. Periodically, the consultant may activate thebilling application 78 and enter an identifier of a patient or theunique identifier of the conference assigned by the tracking application62. In response, the billing application 78 may retrieve an identifier76 of an insurance carrier (or other responsible party) and the timespent by the consultant during conferences with the identified patient.The billing application 78 may also retrieve the audio and video fromthe conference for viewing by the consultant in the case where theconsultant no longer remembers the subject matter of the conference.

The billing application 78 may also process 120 the file 72 and generatean invoice or bill 78 pre-populated with the relevant informationincluding the patient name, the physician's name and identifier andconference times. The consultant 26 may enter the appropriate billingcodes (e.g., evaluation and maintenance (E & M) codes, currentprocedural terminology (CPT) codes, etc.) 80. Once an invoice iscompleted, the billing application 78 may automatically submit theinvoices to the insurer 22 or other responsible party for payment.

The system 10 offers significant advantages over prior art systems. Inthe case of bedridden patients, the system 10 allows one or moreconsultants to converse and view biometric parameters of the patientwithout having to be in the same room as the patient. Similarly,consultants can join a conference from whatever location is convenientfor the consultant.

Similarly, the biometric window 66 allows any of a number of differentbiometric parameters to be viewed in real time. Alternatively, pastrecordings of biometric parameters can be retrieved from a patientrecord 72 for comparison with current readings.

In one aspect, the conferencing system 10 uses the system of FIGS. 1 and2 for providing a method of treating a healthcare patient. The methodmay be practiced as follows. For example the system may operate by firstestablishing an internet connection using a high-performance singleissue Central Processing Unit (CPU) within the caregiver's computer 18and which is integrated with a specially designed load-store DLX(“Deluxe”) architecture with a pipelining schema which allows multipleinstructions to overlap. Every DLX instruction can be implemented in atmost five clock cycles. The five clock cycles are as follows: 1.Instruction fetch cycle (IF). 2. Instruction decode/register fetch cycle(ID). 3. Execution/effective address cycle (EX). 4. Memory Access/branchcompletion cycle (MEM). 5. Write-back cycle (WB). The operating speed ofthe CPU is equal to or greater than 1.2 GHz. The computer architectureis comprised of a minimum 16 KB Instruction and a minimum 16 KB Data4-way, set-associative L1 cache, 256 KB unified 4-way, set-associativeL2 cache, 16-bit DDR2 memory interface (up to 800 MHz data rate), twoGigabit Ethernet MACs with interface options, precise timing protocoland audio video bridging, single PCI-Express port, four USB 2.0 portswith integrated PHY, 4 SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) 2.0ports with integrated PHYs, network security engine with encryptionalgorithms, audio and MPEG transport stream interface, two TDM (Timedivision multiplexing) channels, SDIO (Secure Digital Input Output),NAND flash, SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface), TWSI (Two wire serialinterface) and two UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transceiver)interfaces. The computer architecture is housed in the form factor of aplug computer. The plug computer is programmed to leverage the speciallydesigned load-store DLX computer architecture. The plug computer isintegrated with cellular/mobile communications circuitry. Once the plugcomputer has established internet connectivity through the network 12using said cellular/mobile communications circuitry, the plug computerissues several ping commands to a well-known web site such as Google.Thereafter, using wireless circuitry embedded and Bluetooth (802.11nwireless) specific algorithms, the plug computer searches for andconnects to Bluetooth (802.11n wireless) enabled medical peripheralswhich appear in a preconfigured data table. The data table contains theMAC addresses of each medical peripheral along with the name of themedical peripheral and its serial number. The algorithms stored on theplug computer reads the medical peripheral data table and sends data toand receives data from the connected medical peripherals during thecommunications handshaking process. Once the communications handshakingprocess has been established between the plug computer and the medicalperipherals, the plug computer reads data from the medical peripheralsand establishes a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection beforesecurely transmitting the data to a remote server. The remote serverhosts a secure web portal used to store patient vital signs, patientdemographics, physician license information, Electronic Medical Recordsand other patient specific electronic records. The secure web portal isprogrammed to automatically generate alerts to the patient's primarycare physician if the patient's vital readings are outside of theprescribed limits established by the patient's primary care physician.When a patient's vital signs signal an alert, the web server searches adatabase containing information for the appropriate medical specialistsand pharmacists within the patient's health insurance network who cancollaborate with the patient and the patient's primary care physicianvia a secure medical collaboration visit which is comprised of a liveFlash enabled streaming audio/visual teleconference between a plugcomputer of the patient at a first location and a computer capable ofreceiving and sending live Flash audio/video of a physician located at asecond, remote location different from the first location and a computercapable of receiving and sending live Flash audio/video of a physicianlocated at a third location and a computer capable of receiving andsending live Flash audio/video of a physician located at a fourthlocation and a computer capable of receiving and sending live Flashaudio/video of a physician located at a fifth location;

displaying a set of biometric parameters of the patient in real time tothe physicians at the four remote locations.

A specific embodiment of method and apparatus for conferencingconsultants has been described for the purpose of illustrating themanner in which the invention is made and used. It should be understoodthat the implementation of other variations and modifications of theinvention and its various aspects will be apparent to one skilled in theart, and that the invention is not limited by the specific embodimentsdescribed. Therefore, it is contemplated to cover the present inventionand any and all modifications, variations, or equivalents that fallwithin the true spirit and scope of the basic underlying principlesdisclosed and claimed herein.

1. A method of treating a healthcare patient comprising: establishing aninternet connection using a high-performance single issue CentralProcessing Unit (CPU) which is integrated with a specially designedload-store DLX (“Deluxe”) architecture with a pipelining schema whichallows multiple instructions to overlap, wherein every DLX instructioncan be implemented in at most five clock cycles including: 1)Instruction fetch cycle (IF), 2) Instruction decode/register fetch cycle(ID), 3) Execution/effective address cycle (EX) 4) Memory Access/branchcompletion cycle (MEM) and 5) Write-back cycle (WB), the operating speedof the CPU is equal to or greater than 1.2 GHz, the computerarchitecture is comprised of a minimum 16 KB Instruction and a minimum16 KB Data 4-way, set-associative L1 cache, 256 KB unified 4-way,set-associative L2 cache, 16-bit DDR2 memory interface (up to 800 MHzdata rate), two Gigabit Ethernet MACs with interface options, precisetiming protocol and audio video bridging, single PCI-Express port, fourUSB 2.0 ports with integrated PHY, 4 SATA (Serial Advanced TechnologyAttachment) 2.0 ports with integrated PHYs, network security engine withencryption algorithms, audio and MPEG transport stream interface, twoTDM (Time division multiplexing) channels, SDIO (Secure Digital InputOutput), NAND flash, SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface), TWSI (Two wireserial interface) and two UART (Universal AsynchronousReceiver/Transceiver) interfaces, the computer architecture is housed inthe form factor of a plug computer, the plug computer is programmed toleverage the specially designed load-store DLX computer architecture,the plug computer is integrated with cellular/mobile communicationscircuitry, once the plug computer has established internet connectivityusing said cellular/mobile communications circuitry, the plug computerissues several ping commands to a well-known web site such as Google,thereafter, using wireless circuitry embedded and Bluetooth (802.11nwireless) specific algorithms, the plug computer searches for andconnects to Bluetooth (802.11n wireless) enabled medical peripheralswhich appear in a preconfigured data table, the data table contains theMAC addresses of each medical peripheral along with the name of themedical peripheral and its serial number, the algorithms stored on theplug computer reads the medical peripheral data table and sends data toand receives data from the connected medical peripherals during thecommunications handshaking process, once the communications handshakingprocess has been established between the plug computer and the medicalperipherals, the plug computer reads data from the medical peripheralsand establishes a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection beforesecurely transmitting the data to a remote server, the remote serverhosts a secure web portal used to store patient vital signs, patientdemographics, physician license information, Electronic Medical Recordsand other patient specific electronic records, the secure web portal isprogrammed to automatically generate alerts to the patient's primarycare physician if the patient's vital readings are outside of theprescribed limits established by the patient's primary care physician,when a patient's vital signs signal an alert, the web server searches adatabase containing information for the appropriate medical specialistsand pharmacists within the patient's health insurance network who cancollaborate with the patient and the patient's primary care physicianvia a secure medical collaboration visit which is comprised of a liveFlash enabled streaming audio/visual teleconference between a plugcomputer of the patient at a first location and a computer capable ofreceiving and sending live Flash audio/video of a physician located at asecond, remote location different from the first location and a computercapable of receiving and sending live Flash audio/video of a physicianlocated at a third location and a computer capable of receiving andsending live Flash audio/video of a physician located at a fourthlocation and a computer capable of receiving and sending live Flashaudio/video of a physician located at a fifth location; displaying a setof biometric parameters of the patient in real time to the physicians atthe four remote locations.
 2. The method of treating a healthcarepatient as in claim 1 further comprising setting up a virtual privatenetwork between the patient and physicians.
 3. The method of treating ahealthcare patient as in claim 1 wherein the biometric parametersfurther comprise one of the group consisting of heart rate, anultrasound image, an X-ray image, a glucose level, a chemical dependencymeasurement, an infectious disease measurement, a blood analysis, aspirometric measurement, a weight, a temperature, a blood pressuremeasurement, an exercise monitoring measurement, a peak flowmeasurement, on oximetric measurement, a stethoscope parameter, ahigh-resolution medical camera image, a high-resolution ophthalmologicimage, a high-resolution ear, nose and throat image, a range of motionmeasurement or a infection detection measurement.
 4. The method oftreating a healthcare patient as in claim 1 further comprising couplinga biometric measurement device to the processor of the patient.
 5. Themethod of treating a healthcare patient as in claim 4 further comprisingcoupling biometric details provided by the biometric measurement deviceto the processor of the patient through a USB connection.
 6. The methodof treating a healthcare patient as in claim 5 further comprisingdisplaying an image of the biometric details on a display usingdedicated software supplied with the biometric parameter measurementdevice.
 7. The method of treating a healthcare patient as in claim 6further comprising simultaneously displaying images of the physician andthe image provided by the biometric parameter measuring device.
 8. Themethod of treating a healthcare patient as in claim 6 further comprisingcapturing images provided by the biometric parameter measurement deviceas a sequence of real time images.
 9. The method of treating ahealthcare patient as in claim 8 further comprising sending the realtime images to the website.
 10. The method of treating a healthcarepatient as in claim 9 further comprising archiving the real time images.11. The method of treating a healthcare patient as in claim 9 furthercomprising sending the real time images to the physician.
 12. The methodof treating a healthcare patient as in claim 1 further comprisingtracking a time and length of the audio/visual teleconference.
 13. Themethod of treating a healthcare patient as in claim 12 furthercomprising generating and presenting a billing record for theteleconference to the physician after termination of the teleconferencefor entry by the physician of evaluation and management (E & M) codes orcurrent procedural terminology (CPT) codes.
 14. The method of treating ahealthcare patient as in claim 13 further comprising automaticallygenerating a services invoice for the teleconference using the E & M orCPT codes from the physician to a health insurer of the patient. 15.Apparatus for treating a healthcare patient comprising: a website; aconferencing application at the website that establishes a audio/visualteleconference between a plug computer of the patient at a firstlocation and a computer capable of receiving and sending live streamingFlash audio video of up to four physicians located at second, third andfourth remote locations different from the first location; and a dataprocessing application at the website that displays a set of biometricparameters of the patient in real time to each of the four physicians atfour remote locations.
 16. The apparatus for treating a healthcarepatient as in claim 15 further comprising a virtual private networklocated between the patient and physician.
 17. The apparatus fortreating a healthcare patient as in claim 15 wherein the biometricparameters further comprise one of the group consisting of heart rate,an ultrasound image, an X-ray image, a glucose level, a chemicaldependency measurement, an infectious disease measurement, a bloodanalysis, a spirometric measurement, a weight, a temperature, a bloodpressure measurement, an exercise monitoring measurement, a peak flowmeasurement, on oximetric measurement, a stethoscope parameter, ahigh-resolution medical camera image, a high-resolution ophthalmologicimage, a high-resolution ear, nose and throat image, a range of motionmeasurement or a infection detection measurement.
 18. The apparatus fortreating a healthcare patient as in claim 15 further comprising abiometric measurement device connected to the processor of the patient.19. The apparatus for treating a healthcare patient as in claim 18further comprising a USB connection that couples biometric detailsprovided by the biometric measurement device to the processor of thepatient.
 20. The apparatus for treating a healthcare patient as in claim19 further comprising first and second window displays thatsimultaneously display images of the physician and images provided bythe biometric parameter measuring device.
 21. The apparatus for treatinga healthcare patient as in claim 19 further comprising a data collectionapplication that captures images provided by the biometric parametermeasurement device as a sequence of real time images.
 22. The apparatusfor treating a healthcare patient as in claim 19 further comprising adata collection application that captures real time images provided bythe biometric parameter measurement devices and sends the real timeimages to the website.
 23. The apparatus for treating a healthcarepatient as in claim 23 further comprising a data base that archives thereal time images.
 24. The apparatus for treating a healthcare patient asin claim 22 further comprising a conferencing application that sends thereal time images to the physician.
 25. The apparatus for treating ahealthcare patient as in claim 15 further comprising a billingapplication that tracks a time and length of the audio/visualteleconference.
 26. The apparatus for treating a healthcare patient asin claim 25 further comprising a billing record generated by the billingapplication for the teleconference with the physician after terminationof the teleconference containing evaluation and management (E & M) codesor current procedural terminology (CPT) codes entered by the physician.27. The apparatus for treating a healthcare patient as in claim 26further comprising a services invoice automatically generated by thebilling application for the teleconference using the E & M or CPT codesfrom the physician and sent to a health insurer of the patient. 28.Apparatus for treating a healthcare patient comprising: means forestablishing a audio/visual teleconference between a plug computer ofthe patient at a first location and a computer capable of sending andreceiving live streaming Flash video and audio of up to four physicianslocated at second, third and fourth remote locations different from thefirst location; means for simultaneously displaying a set of biometricparameters of the patient in real time to the patient and to the fourphysicians at four remote locations.
 29. The apparatus for treating ahealthcare patient as in claim 28 wherein the biometric parametersfurther comprise one of the group consisting of heart rate, anultrasound image, an X-ray image, a glucose level, a chemical dependencymeasurement, an infectious disease measurement, a blood analysis, aspirometric measurement, a weight, a temperature, a blood pressuremeasurement, an exercise monitoring measurement, a peak flowmeasurement, on oximetric measurement, a stethoscope parameter, ahigh-resolution medical camera image, a high-resolution ophthalmologicimage, a high-resolution ear, nose and throat image, a range of motionmeasurement or a infection detection measurement.
 30. The apparatus fortreating a healthcare patient as in claim 28 further comprising a database that archives the real time images.
 31. The apparatus for treatinga healthcare patient as in claim 28 further comprising means forgenerating and presenting a billing record for the teleconference to thephysician after termination of the teleconference for entry by thephysician of evaluation and management (E & M) codes or currentprocedural terminology (CPT) codes.
 32. The apparatus for treating ahealthcare patient as in claim 32 further comprising means forautomatically generating a services invoice for the teleconference usingthe E & M or CPT codes from the physician to a health insurer of thepatient.